Shepherd Valley Waldorf School cookbook dishes up healthful food

Whole grains, vegetables to appeal to kids

Do you like to imagine your children scarfing down brown rice and millet, eagerly spooning up oatmeal, loving barley vegetable soup or even baking bread?

Shepherd Valley Waldorf School offers a collection of its recipes in a PDF online, dishes served regularly to preschoolers and children in the after-school program.

Parent and board member Peggy Driscoll, who was instrumental in compiling the collection of recipes, says having her kids come home from school loving a variety of whole grains and vegetables was the impetus for putting together the short book.

"I was so delighted that my kids were coming home loving snacks like millet, brown rice and whole wheat bread baked at school."

The preparation of food at school is a key part of the program. Teachers involve the kids in the cooking process, with each day set aside for making a certain thing.

Monday is brown rice (with toppings), for example. Tuesday is vegetable barley soup in fall and winter, and fruit salad in spring. Wednesday is millet, and Friday is bread. Kids do everything from chopping vegetables and fruits to kneading bread.

"I thought it would be so helpful to have these recipes be pretty easy to make at home," Driscoll says. "We talked to the teachers who were the master chefs. It took a little editing to make a recipe that serves 20 children manageable for home. We tested it and put it in a little book."

For parents of preschoolers, the collection also includes a homemade Play-Doh and soap bubbles.

While it might be difficult to turn the head of a chicken-nugget-loving teenager, the recipes are designed to get families cooking together and eating healthful food. As students at the school move into elementary school, they also help tend the garden, which provides produce for the vegetable soup and other recipes. Special occasion recipes include an apple sauce spice cake made with whole wheat designed for birthdays; holiday cookies with honey and anise; and hot cross buns.

Driscoll says the experience at school has given her three boys a love for cooking; although one didn't attend the program, he also loves to cook. They enjoy the pumpkin bread and the vegetable soup, but their favorite might be a little surprising: Oatmeal.

The recipe includes cinnamon, cardamom, cloves and maple syrup.

It's apparently a pretty popular dish.

"I really like the oatmeal they have at school," says Lillian Krecic, 6. "What they do is put raisins and almonds on it. It tastes good. We have it for a snack."

She also likes helping to make it.

"Guess what? We do the oats from scratch, so we grind them ourselves," she says. "It's kind of a crank thing," she says of the grinder.

Lillian also likes making bread.

"The teacher gives us bowls of dough. We turn the dough into different little shapes, and we get to knead it."

Lillian's mother, Anna, says she loves the Waldorf approach to food. Her daughters, Lillian, and Sidonia, 4, were in Waldorf schools in upstate New York before they moved to Boulder.

"The way they feed the kids is so nourishing. We've tried to adopt that at home," she says.

Oatmeal

3 to 4 cups water

1 cup oats

1 cinnamon stick

1/4 cup maple syrup

1/4-1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

1/8 teaspoon cardamom

A pinch of ground cloves (optional in winter)

1/8 teaspoon salt

Directions: Bring water to a boil in a large pot. Once boiling, slowly add oats and remaining ingredients. Turn heat down to a simmer. Cover and cook until water is absorbed, and it looks done, about 10 minutes, careful not to overcook. Let stand, covered until ready to serve.

Melt butter in a small saucepan and stir in the honey and mashed pumpkin or banana. Once combined, stir into dry ingredients. Add 2 eggs or egg replacer and vanilla, and combine well.

Put in an oiled bread pan and bake for one hour.

Makes one loaf.

Source: "A Collection of Recipes," Shepherd Valley Waldorf School

Fruit Salad

3 cups filtered water

1 cup pearled barley

2 teaspooons vanilla

1 teaspoon cardamom

2 teaspoons cinnamon, plus more for sprinkling on top

1/4 cup maple syrup

1 cup raisins

1 heaping cup vanilla soy yogurt

1 tablespoon lemon juice

Honey to taste

Assorted fruit, chopped

Directions: Bring water to boil in a medium pot. Add barley, vanilla, cardamom, cinnamon and maple syrup. Cover and turn down heat to simmer. Cook until all water is absorbed. Immediately remove from heat and cool.

When barley is cool, stir in chopped fruit, raisins, yogurt, lemon juice and a bit of honey. Toss until thoroughly mixed. Sprinkle with cinnamon.

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